'Surrender' or 'de-escalation'? Officials react to Tom Homan pulling 700 immigration officers from Minnesota

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Friday, February 06, 2026

Tom Homan 

According to Homan, the decision to withdraw 700 federal agents from Minnesota follows discussions he had with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and various law enforcement officials.

The discussions focused on community safety and increasing coordination between county jails and immigration officers. 

The agents withdrawing from Minnesota are a mix of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Customs and Border Patrol agents. But around 2,000 agents will remain in the state.

"While we had our differences, one thing was clear: we all committed to public safety for all who live in the Twin Cities," Homan announced on Wednesday. "We have made significant progress under the direction of President Trump, working with state and local officials here in Minnesota, and I expect that to increase in the coming weeks."

Homan added that an “unprecedented” number of counties are communicating with the administration and allowing immigration officers to take criminal illegal aliens into custody. 

“And I'll say it again. This is efficient, requires only one or two officers to assume custody of a criminal alien target, rather than eight or 10 officers going into the community and arresting that public safety threat,” Homan said.

“This frees up more officers to arrest or remove criminal aliens. More officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails means less officers on the street doing criminal operations,” he continued. “This is smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement. It's safer for the community, safer for the officers, and safer for the alien.” 

Homan acknowledged that operations in Minnesota haven't been "perfect," but explained that they've "created one unified chain of command to make sure everybody is on the same page." 

“We made this operation more streamlined, and we established a unified chain of command. So everybody knows what everybody's doing,” the border czar said.